'Stop signal violation' on NJ Transit train

A "stop signal violation" by an NJ Transit engineer at Penn Station New York was the cause of Thursday night's hour-long delays, according to NJ Transit.

NJ Transit told New Jersey 101.5 the incident involved Morris & Essex Line train No. 6656 around 5 p.m. Passengers on board the train were able to exit the train safely and unassisted at the platform.

The agency would not disclose details about what led to the violation, citing an ongoing investigation. The violation required an immediate investigation because the “complex system” of rails and signals could have been affected by the incident, a spokesperson said.

The veteran engineer driving the train and a conductor were both "taken out of service," according to NJ Transit. The agency did not immediately return a message asking if the engineer had any previous violations.

An announced delay of 30 minutes grew to 60 minutes on all New Jersey Transit trains in and out of New York, and led to packed platforms of passengers waiting to board trains Thursday night. Others sat on trains and tweeted that they received no information from NJ Transit about when their trains would leave. Cross honoring was in effect with NJ Transit buses.

According to a tweet by NJTV's Brenda Flanagan, NJ Transit Director of Rail Operations told a meeting of NJ Transit's Operations and Customer Service Committee on Friday morning that the train ran a stop signal and described the incident as an "operating rules violation."

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ